Legendary chef Auguste Escoffier famously declared that the three great secrets of French cuisine are: butter, butter, butter. While this is a playful culinary proverb, French gastronomy is built on a few core pillars that elevate simple ingredients into world-renowned masterpieces.
We know that French cooking relies on the freshness and quality of its ingredients, but it is also about choosing the right ingredients - and the use of butter is often at the foundation of flavour development. It is used to sauté, build sauces, and add a rich, velvety finish to nearly every dish.
Therefore, in celebration of our French heritage, we bring butter to the table!
It is so easy to motivate. Butter has two exceptional qualities: its superior ability to carry flavour and of course, its indulgent texture. These two qualities are also familiar in wine talk and perhaps that is why beautiful flavoured butter melting on your steak, can help you find the most amazing wine partner too.
Butter is one of the culinary world’s most effective flavour carriers because many flavour and aroma compounds are fat-soluble. The fat in butter dissolves and evenly distributes these compounds throughout a dish. When you sauté garlic, onions, or spices in butter, the hot fat extracts the volatile oils and flavours from the ingredients. This flavoured butter coats the tongue and allows the distinct aromas to reach your olfactory senses, delivering a rich and rounded flavour in every bite. While you can of course also add umami flavours, butter naturally contains subtle notes of savoury umami. We all know the irrisistable nutty, savoury and even caramel-type flavours that develop when we brown butter. Browned butter (beurre noisette) is one of the most amazing ways to contribute depth to your dish - whether it is savoury or sweet.
More than flavour, butter is also about texture. Its melting point is close to body temperature, which means it coats the palate and lingers there, resulting in a velvety and satisfying mouthfeel that you don't get with oils.
While we love bread and butter, this winter, we are about much more than an indulgent smear on your favourite slice.
At L'Ami Family Brasserie, rather than serving steak with a sauce, we suggest you opt for a beautifully melting knob of flavoured butter on your warm dish. The innovative flavour expert, Chef Stephan Moolman has developed various flavoured butters as the most magnificent pairings with our selection of Reserve wines. Imagine smoked bone marrow and braaied onions with the intricacy of Cabernet Sauvignon, green olive, lemon and anchovy flavours to tease your Chardonnay, the ever-so-classic Beurre Bordelaise with a Rhône-style Syrah and the utter delight of burnt honey and fynbos with the texture rich temptation of Cap Classique!
These delightful pairings will be available at L'Ami from 20 July.
Because most of us also like to cook a steak at home and as some of our loyal followers can't get to our Franschhoek Valley address all the time, we decided to find a way in which you can experience this exceptional experience of flavour and texture at home too. Of course we don't expect you to go to the effort of sourcing buchu or smoking marrow bones at home, so we asked one of South Africa's leading culinary duos to develop a range of flavoured butters that will be easy enough to duplicate at home.
Passionate about making the most of basic ingredients, Georgia East and her braai fundi husband, Dawid Botha came up with these flavoured butter recipes paired to La Motte Reserve wines. Just delightful!
Don't miss the opportunity to try an elegant white with your steak either. The La Motte Reserve Chardonnay has enough substance to be a beautiful partner to your Fillet and the butter recommendation here is one flavoured with Caramelised Shallot & Truffle.
